Looked at two list the best and worst college profs---
The only thing that stood out was the best list was populated by schools the taught to the student beliefs and the worst list was populated by schools that challenged the students beliefs.

It is always painful to have one's beliefs challenged even (especially) if they are still held afterwards

I don't place much weight in any of these lists because there are so many out there that you are guaranteed to find almost every college on a top 25 list for something.

Iceman, if you see the methodology they used it would not be a shocker that the SAs are on that list. Some of the factors automatically give the SAs an edge.
~~~ Cost
~~~ Retention
~~~ Employment

You have to look at the methodology. My SIL loves to brag that our niece attends the number 1 college in the nation for international exchange. Not hard to be number 1 when it is mandatory to go overseas for a semester to graduate from their school. Her other DD just got into Rowan university. She tells people it is ranked number 3 for engineering. Rowan is not number 3, it is not better than MIT or Cal Tech, or any SA. However, it ranks out that way for public schools in the Northeast.

Like I said I can find a list somewhere that will rank almost every college in the top 25 for something.

VT is ranked number 1 for the best college food! Let's be real, food matters when you chose a college. Nobody flame me, that is tongue in cheek. I am a proud Hokie parent.

I think these lists are created just for the parents that love to brag. It is their own little feel good moment.

Of course the colleges love to be on the lists too so they can place it on their glossy brochures and nifty web pages.

I really hold no value to any of them. I think if you go to HYPPSM, you darn well know just through the application process they are the tops. When colleges like UPenn don't give grades for freshman, just pass/fail because it freaks the student out to get their 1st B ever, or when they put bars on the windows like Columbia did in the 80's to deter jumping because of stress. USNWR, and Forbes aren't telling you anything new.

The one list that I do place value into our HS national ranking. Again it is due to methodology. It is based on SAT/ACT avg., % that go Ivy, and AP/IBs offered. Pretty clear cut and level playing field.

My college ranked from top 10 to number 70 in the Northeast. The thing is the top 10 was for one specific major, basically the major that everyone applies to the school for. It is also ranked number 1 for international students because it is private, and they are known for this major, they don't have to worry about taking X amount of IS applicants. There is no way I would say that my college is better than VT, but it ranks higher because they have more international students % wise. Nothing more to do with just that. Nothing to do with academics per se.

Thus, why these lists really mean nothing except for what the reader wants to see.

I don't place much weight in any of these lists because there are so many out there that you are guaranteed to find almost every college on a top 25 list for something.

Iceman, if you see the methodology they used it would not be a shocker that the SAs are on that list. Some of the factors automatically give the SAs an edge.
~~~ Cost
~~~ Retention
~~~ Employment

You have to look at the methodology. My SIL loves to brag that our niece attends the number 1 college in the nation for international exchange. Not hard to be number 1 when it is mandatory to go overseas for a semester to graduate from their school. Her other DD just got into Rowan university. She tells people it is ranked number 3 for engineering. Rowan is not number 3, it is not better than MIT or Cal Tech, or any SA. However, it ranks out that way for public schools in the Northeast.

Like I said I can find a list somewhere that will rank almost every college in the top 25 for something.

VT is ranked number 1 for the best college food! Let's be real, food matters when you chose a college. Nobody flame me, that is tongue in cheek. I am a proud Hokie parent.

Click to expand...

The way I look at it, rateMyProfessor.com allows a student to provide feedback(positive or negative) without fear of repercussions from the rated professor. Unlike civilian colleges where you can steer away from tenured professors that have unflattering feedback, that is not the case at a Military Academy. You may not put much weight in rankings such as these but when deciding where to eat or sleep, Zagat or Yelp's ratings may warn you of places to avoid or are sought after.

The problem even with your premise is that what one cadet/mid hate as a prof another may love. Students and profs are people, they all have personal opinions that differ.

The other problem I see is that candidates understand the system for an appointment. If you really want to be in the AF are you going to apply to USMA just to go to an SA? If not, than the list doesn't matter now does it? There was no way our DS would apply to any SA, except for AFA, and the ranking wouldn't matter at all to him.

SAs are not like traditional colleges. You can go to Duke, Harvard, or anyone on the list, and get the same job no matter where you go. I.E. let's say aerospace engineering. The list in that case does matter more for some.

Finally, at least for my kids, the list wouldn't matter in the end. It was the feel of the campus that was their final factor. People saying negative things about profs, wouldn't make a difference at all.

On the worst list is our DS's school, coming in at the bottom. He wouldn't have changed his decision at all because a bunch of kids. He loved the campus. Our DD OTOH has stated over and over again, even if she was given a free ride there she would never have gone. She hated the feel of the campus...too spread out, the federalist look of the buildings, in a city environment, etc., etc. They both attend/ed flagship state colleges.

Our youngest was the same way. He knocked out some colleges from the get go because of the campus.

This is why again, either way you want to roll it, the list really means nothing for an SA candidate that wants a career in a specific branch or the traditional student wanting a degree in a certain field.

Honestly, do you know any kid that said I am not going there because of the rankings, especially if they love the campus and got a great merit package? I am willing to bet my Myrtle, that they do exist, but are extremely rare. Maybe less than 5% of every kid, lower if the only way they can afford to attend any college is with financial assistance. People can convince themselves of most anything if they have something very high at stake.

Are you saying because of the worst list you wouldn't apply for the CGA? Are you saying if you apply to all 5 SAs, and only the CGA offers you an appointment you would turn it down? If the answer is you intend to apply, or have applied, and if that was your only option you would take it, than your position failed in a realistic approach because you are going to a school that was on the worst list.

Out of all that you pointed out, difference in opinion is what I would agree with. Obviously, a graduate or a current student of a school that's ranked poorly may take offense and choose to deny or ignore what the ratings suggest. It is commendable that your child knew what specific SA to apply to. There are those who choose to cast a wide net in case plan "A" doesn't pan out. The best or worst list is too superficial to be used as a determining factor in whether to attend a school or not but it does lend a peek into how the students think of the professors that they may be dealing with. Once again, it may serve a useful purpose of addressing a few bad apples that spoils the bucket. I'm sure that there's definite bias and subjective feedback coming from those that take the time to rate their professors. Then again a content and satisfied student could easily cancel a negative feedback and endorse an effective professor as well.

I guess I'll throw this out there, the data from that ratemyprofessors.com site is fairly old (as in LITS was still at the Academy old )

There is only one instructor who is here now who was on that list as far as I can tell.

But for the record, I agree with her rather low marks.

That does not however, mean, that I didn't learn something for her... I learned how to teach myself something because I wasn't getting it from her in a way that was applicable to me. Probably the most valuable thing I learned here at the Academy.

I find the idea of using RateMyProfessor to compare the evaluation of one set of instructors by one set of students to another set of instructors by a different set of students to be ludicrous from a scientific perspective. There is no basis to compare either population (instructors, students) with each other.

I've come up with an idea that I'm looking for partners to make a lot of money - - RateMyDormFood. We can see which school has the slimiest mystery meat (or mystery tofu for you vegans out there).

I can remember my daughter complaining about dorm food at her boarding school. When parents came up, I guess the brought out the better stuff, but still, a turkey sandwich is still the same, and I found they used excellent ingredients. OK, they had fresh strawberries when we showed up and not during the rest of the year. But the snicker-doodles and whoopee pies where the same - and quite yummy I might add.

So she goes off to medium-sized state U and finds out what REALLY BAD dorm food tastes like. I have to admit (from a sample size of one meal), that it was made from very low grade ingredients (ham that was about 25% fat, clearly reconstituted dried potatoes).

Now that she lives in an apartment, she cooks for herself and can really appreciate how difficult it is to put a variety of tasty food on your plate for a reasonable sum of money. I get plenty of calls asking cooking ideas - and she shares her successful accomplishments.

With RateMyProfessors, I suspect that the students really have no idea of how difficult it is to effectively impart knowledge to a population who have very different educational backgrounds and learning preferences. Yeah, there are plenty of folks at the lectern who miss badly in imparting knowledge and have been burnt out by years of indifferent students, but until these kids actually try to teach something to somebody, I put little value into their diatribes.

Getting back to the scientific value of RateMyProfessor, it can actually be a reasonable tool for the student who is looking to avoid the hard grader (generally when lots of people rate the easiness factor high, you are more likely to get a higher grade), but as far as quality of instruction, this is taste driven. In watching kids eating at both schools (the boarding school and State U), I saw that everyone found something to eat and nobody starved to death - in fact at the State U, I would say the waistlines were generally larger than at the boarding school). If you are interested in learning or eating, you will find something that satisfies the need just about everywhere if you look at the menu hard enough.

So put me in the camp of saying this is more about whining than anything else.

If the name of the college is obscured and you were supplied with the available data and asked to extract a quantifiable conclusion, I highly doubt that you would be able to question the result. A double blind study eliminating any subjective errors might be more convincing than just a highly opinionated statement as truth. Far from it, you can deny and discredit the list because where you matriculated was included in the list-it's natural for you to be offended. As you wake up and tell yourself how swell it must be to have a diploma from a topnotch institution and give yourself a pep talk, at the end of the day it's all a matter of perspective. Once you get out in the real world, no one really cares. You either perform or become irrelevant.